Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy VII or Advent Children storylines (such as Rayne, Marcus, and Kale) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.

(Argument)

After Dio had personally given Astrid her stored-value card, she insisted on using it to check them all into and paying for some rooms at the Ghost Square, which consisted of buying GP from the Arcade before they could actually head to the hotel.

After renting two rooms and banishing Rufus and the male Turks to fight between the two beds, Astrid, Elena and Kale, who was still carrying Shade, headed to their own room, where Astrid immediately turned on Elena and pinned her with a sadistic smirk.

"So… you and Tseng were lookin' pretty satisfied after you two got off of the gondola."

Elena blushed, taking a step back. "Uhh…" Her eyes shot around the room desperately, finally landing on Kale. "You shouldn't talk like that with your son in the room!" She declared triumphantly.

Astrid rolled her eyes, "Kale, sweetheart, go take a bath, alright? We've been running around all evening."

Kale complied immediately, a bit nervous about the sugar-sweet tone his adoptive mother had used.

Elena watched Astrid wearily as the woman walked over to the bed and picked up Shade. The Turk commented, "What wonderful parenting skills you have. If he didn't feel like he was in the way before, he sure will now."

"Kale is a smart, capable boy," Astrid replied with a sigh, sitting down on the edge of one of the two beds. She then threw Elena a grin and asked, "So… what happened?"

"How much money do you have, again?" Elena asked, narrowing her eyes.

Astrid nodded at the jab, "Touché." She though, then replied cryptically, "Let's just say that the amount I have would be able to run a small subsidiary of Shin-Ra, with all departments in mind and roughly three hundred staff, for about… a year and a half, not counting any profits made."

The Turk stiffened at this, then calmed and replied, just as cryptically, "Let's just say we're comfortable where we are at, though we would prefer not to make it a big deal."

"Awww, Elena!" Astrid exclaimed suddenly, setting Shade down and leaping at the Turk, pulling her into a hug, "You and Tseng are finally together!"

Elena stood still for a moment, frozen. Then, she raised a hand and jerkily patted Astrid on the back. When the hug had gone on far longer than Elena would have liked, she squirmed out of Astrid's grasp and took a few steps back, looking at her wearily.

Astrid rolled her eyes, "Elena, we've known each other for almost four years now and you can't even hug me?"

"Proper Turk protocol requires—" Elena began to mutter, only to be cut off my Astrid.

"That you not know how to display emotions?" Astrid quirked a brow, "Elena, we're friends, right? I mean, I would assume we are. …I did spend the better part of two years looking for you because I thought we were…"

"Yeah… I guess…" Elena answered slowly, not liking to be reminded of what she had had to do to her friend.

Astrid, though, smiled and gave the Turk a playful punch to the shoulder, "Then loosen up, already! Protocol is fine and all in public, but when it's just you and me chill a bit, alright?" When Elena just looked at her feet and grumbled, Astrid quirked a brow, "What's up with you, eh? You seem glum."

"Astrid…" Elena sighed, walking over to a chair by the window and taking a seat, gesturing to the chair's twin in front of her, "Have a seat."

A bit shocked by the formalities, Astrid complied and sat, folding her hands in her lap in a serious manner. "What is it, Elena?"

"Rufus wants to bring Shin-Ra back." Elena stated bluntly.

Astrid blinked, slowly nodding, "I can imagine he would…"

"As employees of Shin-Ra, the Turks want what the President wants. And, since you are also, still technically, an employee of Shin-Ra, yourself, you should want this as well."

"…Yes?..."

"…You are continuously making reference to your large stores of money."

"…" Astrid frowned wearily, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms, "Can we get to the point, already? All of this lackadaisical pussyfooting is starting to annoy me."

"…" Elena sighed, "Astrid, Rufus wants access to your money."

"…? How can you tell?"

"He told me to ask you."

"…Oh. Hell. No."

"Didn't have enough balls to ask me yourself, Mr. President?" Astrid hissed as she slid into place beside Rufus on the helicopter, the man nodding to Reno to take off. "Had to order one of your flunkies to ask for you?"

Rufus glanced at her, frowning, "Astrid, can we talk about this la—"

"No, Rufus. We talk now" She growled, her hands balling into fists.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Why would Rufus Shinra act so uncharacteristically romantic? Why would Rufus Shinra be attracted to her? Why would Rufus fucking Shinra deign to be her beau?

Money.

Rufus Shinra was about power, and what better way to get power than money? He wanted to resurrect Shin-Ra, so he needed her money.

And what better way to get it than to seduce it out of her.

Fucking Rufus Shinra…

"You used me." Astrid hissed, her eyeballs burning beneath their lids with… what? Anger? Or possibly salinity? At this point, either was probable.

Rufus's frown deepened, "What are you—" Then, his eyes widened as he suddenly understood, only to narrow dramatically a moment later, after he had had a moment to process what she was implying. And now that he knew, he was pissed.

Had Astrid not been so angry, she might have had half a mind to be a bit worried. But she was angry, and she didn't think. She just glared.

Almost shaking with anger, Rufus leaned in so that his forehead was touching hers, were he hissed, "You and I will continue this conversation when we get back to Healin."

"Astrid," Rufus growled as he pushed her down onto the bed, glaring at her as she sat up, "Let me tell you who I am. Third in line, I am President of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company. Second, I am Rufus Shinra, a descendent from a line of men born to rule. But, first and foremost, I am a man, and no self-respecting man would take advantage of a woman in a sexual manner in order to get money from her. You know me, and I know you know that I would never, never, ask for money like this, nor would I take advantage of you like you were suggesting."

Astrid sat back silently and watched as Rufus deflated, his anger apparently leaving him as he flopped down onto the bed beside her, landing on his stomach.

After staring at his back for a moment, she looked away slowly.

"You'll work in alliance with Reeve."

Rufus lifted his head and craned his neck back to look at her, "Huh?"

"You'll fund the World Regenesis Organization, Reeve's organization." Astrid elaborated, "Tifa told me about it." She looked at him, "It's basically the company that's taking Shin-Ra's place; it exists to keep the planet safe."

"I know what it is." Rufus grumbled, sitting up, "I just didn't think you knew about it."

"I know more than you think." Astrid rolled her eyes, then turned her head away and looked down at her lap, "Like what happened to a majority of Shin-Ra's coffers." When Rufus jerked beside her, she went on, "Not all of Shin-Ra's money was in paper… most of it was in credit. When Shin-Ra collapsed and its employees had no work to return to, they thought they were lost. Then… suddenly a 'loophole' was found by the companies last few financial advisors, and each former employee found themselves with a sum of at least ten thousand gold…" She sighed, "It wasn't much, but… it was there." Astrid then turned back, smirking at Rufus, "No one knew you were alive, but it was you, wasn't it? You wrote that 'loophole', and as a result lost almost all of the money Shin-Ra had."

Rufus blinked slowly, then turned away and flopped back down onto his stomach.

Smirk turning into a smile, Astrid scooted back and started massaging his back, "Aww, did Rufus have a soft moment?"

"Shut up and work on the knots between my shoulder blades." Rufus grumbled, pausing a moment before adding, "You'll be in charge of liaisons between Shin-Ra and WRO. Do it as discreetly as possible and only speak directly to Reeve about any transactions; no middle man other than yourself."

"Fine." Astrid nodded, "But it's all being done in Shin-Ra's name. I refuse to sign my own name on any official papers, unless it's followed by 'Shin-Ra' in some form." When Rufus sighed irritably, she rolled her eyes, "Do you want to repay Gaia or not? As one of your employees, I can't do this on my own, Rufus."

"Whatever."

Astrid sighed loudly, then threw her legs over the edge of the bed and stood, "I'm going to check on Kale. He's been alone with Reno for too long."

"Hold up." Rufus stood, walking to the closet and opening it. From inside, he pulled out three familiar items; Radiant Twilight, the Teleport materia, and the Book. He threw them on the bed and looked at Astrid pointedly, "What are we going to do with these?"

Astrid's cheeks puffed out as she forced a long breath out from her lips. She paused, then began to point, "The materia needs to be destroyed, the Book needs to go back to Cosmo Canyon, and Radiant Twilight…"

"Can be destroyed right alongside the materia." Rufus finished, crossing his arms and frowning, "Why did you accept the blade in the first place, Astrid?"

She shrugged, "I was too flustered when it was offered to turn it away. Besides, I had no idea Kadaj would use it to infect me with Geostigma, otherwise I wouldn't have even touched it."

"Accepting anything from an enemy is stupid." Rufus narrowed his eyes, "Especially when the thing in question happens to have been a 'gift from Jenova'."

"You know," Astrid glared at him, "If we're going to start on this whole tirade about 'why did you do this stupid thing', how about I ask you why lied to me and didn't tell me you had Jenova's head sitting in you lap the whole damned time?"

Rufus quirked a brow, "It was on a need-to-know basis, and you didn't need to know."

"And what I do is on an I-only-care-about-certain-people's-input, and quite frankly," She smirked, "I don't care for your input."

"Ah!" Rufus cried dramatically, pressing his hand to his heart, "You wound me, Astrid."

"Shinra," Astrid sighed, "Bite me."

Rufus smirked, taking a step towards her, "Tell me where."

She glared at him, "Try my fist when I force-feed it to you."

Rufus took another step towards her, smirk growing, "I like it when you talk dirty."

Astrid couldn't hold back a smirk as she put out her hand to stop him, pressing against his chest, "Back off, pretty boy. We don't want to mar your precious face, do we?" When Rufus batted her hand aside and pulled her against him, she frowned, "How is it we almost always manage to go from fighting to aroused? Do you count arguing as some kind of twisted foreplay?"

Rufus quirked a brow, "We both do, apparently."

"So does this count as a watered-down sado-masochistic relationship?"

Rufus smirked, "Just don't go dominatrix on me; I'm the dominant one here."

Astrid smirked back, grabbing the back of his head and pulling his face closer to hers, "We'll see about that."

Rufus leaned in, his mouth brushing against her, "Be prepared to submit."

Then…

Someone knocked on the door.

"Astrid?" Reno called, "Kale wants you."

Astrid twitched and Rufus hissed, both muttering, "I'm going to kill that man."

With a sigh, Astrid disentangled herself from Rufus and walked to the door, jerking it open and kicking Reno in the groin. When the Turk had collapsed to the ground, Astrid stepped over him and walked down the hall, knocking on her son's door when she came to it.

"Kale? You in there?"

"Come in!" He called back.

Opening the door slowly, Astrid put on a smile and walked in, her smile widening when she saw Kale sitting on his bed, playing with Shade.

"Cute, isn't he?"

Kale nodded, looking up at her and smiling, "I've never had a pet before, so playing with yours is fun!"

"How about you keep him, then?"

Kale's eyes widened, "Really?!"

Astrid nodded, smiling, "Sure, why not? You're old enough to take on the responsibility, and it'll be reassuring for me to know that you'll always have someone around watching your back." She reached out, scratching the hellkitten behind its ears, "This breed of cat in particular is very loyal."

"Did you used to have one?"

"Rufus did, actually." Astrid smiled sadly, "Her name was Dark Nation, and she was a very loyal, beautiful creature."

Kale looked down at Shade, petting his back, "Is Shade her son?"

Astrid shook her head, "No. A… good friend of mine gave him to be just before he died, but I didn't know about him until I came back here after a hard battle. Kadaj probably left him on our doorstep sometime after everyone had left Healin to fight."

Kale looked at her in shock, "Wasn't Kadaj… one of the…" He trailed off weakly when she looked down at him.

"Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo did bad things, Kale." She whispered, "But they were… deluded. I know that nothing I can say can take back what they did, but… they weren't all bad." She then shook her head, "So, did you want to talk to me about something?"

Kale nodded, "When can I start school?"

Astrid blinked, shocked, "You… want to go to school?"

"Yeah!"

She smiled slowly at his answer, "I'll have to think about a good institution, but… as soon as possible, Kale."

"Junon, Rufus? Are you kidding me?" Astrid sighed, crossing her arms and pacing, "Junon is currently under mob rule; we can't send Kale to school there!"

"It's not like we can send him to Midgar; most of it is still in ruins, and I personally highly doubt they have a functioning school." Rufus sighed, "If you're so opposed to Junon, why don't we have Tseng tutor him?"

"He needs to gain social skills in a public school." Astrid replied distractedly, biting her thumb. "Are there any places of Junon that are still protected?"

"So long as the Turks are there, yes." Rufus smirked.

Astrid stopped, throwing him a glare, "The Turks are an elite group of assassins, Rufus."

"Actually, technically now that Shin-Ra is largely collapsed, they only act as bodyguards. Technically, they're no longer Turks."

Astrid sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She then looked at him, "Junon, huh?"